BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 

<• 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


SPEECH 

•j  ••, 


OF 


MB.  FOOTE,  OF  MISSISSIPPI, 

ON  THE 

ADMISSION  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  AUGUST   1,  1850. 


The  Senate  having  under  consideration  bill  No.  169,  for  the  admission 
•of  California  as  a  State  into  the  Union,  Mr.  FOOTE  said  : 

I  cannot  say  that  I  am  at  all  distressed  at  having  so  plausible  an  ex 
cuse  for  declaring  my  views  upon  the  pending  question  this  morning  to 
the  Senate  as  has  been  supplied  by  certain  honorable  gentlemen  who 
have  been  pleased  to  refer  in  a  manner  calling  for  special  notice  from  me, 
to  the  attitude  and  avowed  policy  of  the  State  which  I  have  the  honor  in 
part  to  represent  here,  touching  the  secession  movements  which  appear  to 
have  been  resolved  upon  by  certain  persons  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 
Sir,  the  State  of  Mississippi  has  been  occasionally  given  credit  for  the 
avowal  of  doctrines  and  designs  as  abhorrent  to  her  whole  people  as  such 
accursed  doctrines  and  designs  could  possibly  be  to  the  citizens  of  any 
State  in  this  Confederacy.    The  honorable  gentlemen  from  Virginia  (Mr. 
MASON)  has  chosen  to  give  us  something  of  a  discourse,  just  now,  upon 
what  he  calls  the  Missouri  Compromise.     I  think,  by  this  time,  we  ought 
to  be  able  to  understand  what  the  old  Missouri  Compromise  meant,  and 
that  we  can  hardly  stand  in  need  of  such  incessant  lectures  upon  its 
history  and  general  merits.     But,  sir,  let  me  ask,  Does  not  the  honorable 
Senator  from  Virginia  know  that  the  Nashville  Convention  has  not  re 
commended  the  adoption  of  the  old  Missouri  Compromise  ?     He  enlarges 
upon  the  force  and  dignity  of  precedent.     He  speaks  of  the  sanction  of 
time.     He  informs  us  that  the  Southern  States  have  repeatedly  hereto 
fore  manifested  their  disposition  to  observe  the  Missouri  Compromise  — 
the  old  Missouri  Compromise.     I  ask  again,  emphatically,  of  the  honor 
able  Senator  from  Virginia  —  (who  has  doubtless  watched  the  move 
ments  of  the  day  very  closely,  and  is  quite  familiar  with  the  proceed 
ings  of  that  body  called  the  Nashville  Convention)  —  has  he  not  yet  as 
certained  the  fact,  that,  according  to  the  political  doctors  of  South  Caro 
lina,  the  old  Missouri  Compromise  was  repudiated  by  that  body,  and 
that  they  only  proposed  to  run  the  line  of  36  deg.  30  min.  to  the  Pacific 
for  the  purpose  of  dividing  the  territory  between  the  North  and  the  South, 
as  property?     Such  is  the  fact.     I  challenge  denial.     Now,  sir,  I,  as  a 
true  Missouri  Compromise  man,  must  say  that  the  mere  line  of  36  deg. 
30  min.,  as  a  line  for  the  purpose  of  dividing  the  supposed  landed  estates 
of  the  North  and  the  South  respectively,  is  to  me  a  great  and  ridiculous 
absurdity  ;  and  I  call  upon  those  who  have  heretofore  united  with  me 
in  supporting  the  Missouri  Compromise,  according  to  its  ancient  mean 
ing,  to  join  me  once  more  in  sustaining  and  enforcing  it  against  all  the 
false  teachers  of  the  present  hour,  who,  whilst  professing  to  respect  it, 
are  openly  exhibiting  towards  it  the  most  signal  contempt.    I  emphatically 
assert  that  if  the  reputed  author  of  the  Nashville  address  is  to  be  be- 

TOWJ5R9,  PKIJfT. 


lieved  on  this  subject,  the  honorable  Senator  from  Virginia  is  totally,  in 
error  in  supposing  that  the  Nashville  Convention  attached  its  sanction, 
in  the  least  possible  degree,  to  the  old  Missouri  Compromise.  Therefore, 
what  the  honorable  Senator  from  Virginia  has  said  on  this  subject  is 
entirely  alien  to  the  question  before  us. 

Permit  me  to  offer  one  or  two  additional  remarks  in  regard  to  mv  own 
position  touching  the  Missouri  Compromise.  It  is  known  that  I  have 
always  voted  for  it  whenever  it  has  been  proposed  here;  that  I  have  la 
bored  strenuously  for  years  past  to  procure  its  adoption,  and  I  have,  seve* 
ral  weeks  ago,  given  a  minute  history  of  my  exertions  in  this  behalf, 
which  will  leave  no  doubt  upon  the  mind  of  any  unprejudiced  man  in 
regard  to  my  zeal  and  sincerity  in  urging  the  Missouri  Compromise  upon 
the  Senate  and  the  country.  I  shall  not  now  recapitulate  statements 
formerly  made,  and  which,  I  hope,  honorable  Senators  have  not  yet  for 
gotten,  showing  the  extraordinary  efforts  which  I  have  thought  it  my 
duty  to  make  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  sanction  of  Congress  for 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  I  will  not  again  expatiate  upon  the  fact,  which 
is,  however,  undisputable,  that  until  within  a  few  months  past  I  found 
myself  almost  entirely  unaided  from  the  South  in  my  efforts  to  bring 
about  the  re-enactment  of  the  Compromise.  I  beg  leave,  Mr.  President, 
though,  to  remind  you  of  what  you  can,  indeed,  never  forget,  that  about 
the  beginning  of  this  session  you  were  written  to  by  a  distinguished 
Pennsylvania  statesman,  (Mr.  Buchanan,)  for  the  purpose  of  ascertain 
ing  whether  or  not  the  Southern  members  of  Congress  would  be  content 
with  the  Missouri  Compromise  as  a  plan  of  adjusting  the  vexed  territo 
rial  question.  I  had  written  to  him  repeatedly  before,  urging  him  to 
throw  before  the  country  his  views  upon  the  subject,  hoping  that  thus 
recommended,  the  ancient  popularity  of  this  time-honored  measure  might 
be  restored.  You  recollect,  sir,  that  you  were  directed  to  consult  with 
me  upon  the  subject,  and  to  report  our  joint  opinion  as  to  the  possibility 
of  any  good  arising  from  such  a  publication  as  I  had  urged,  and  to  report 
our  joint  opinion  also  as  to  whether  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  then 
likely  to  prove  acceptable  to  the  Southern  members  of  Congress.  Well, 
sir,  we  did  consult.  We  did  scrutinize  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.  We 
did  both  come  to  the  conclusion — reluctantly  and  painfully — that  the 
Missouri  Compromise  had  lost  favor  in  the  eyes  of  Southern  men ;  and 
you  wrote  in  reply,  giving  our  united  opinion  that  a  mere  declaration 
by  Mr.  Buchanan  of  his  known  views  upon  the  subject  would  prove  em 
barrassing  to  him,  and  injurious  to  his  standing  in  the  South,  without 
at  all  benefiting  the  country.  Sir,  this  state  of  things  continued,  as  you 
well  know,  for  some  time.  Nobody  mentioned  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
either  here  or  in  the  other  branch  of  Congress,  (except  with  certain  se 
rious  modifications,)  until  that  Adjustment  bill,  the  defeat  of  which  has 
now  occurred,  had  been  brought  forward,  was  apparently  growing  quite 
popular,  and  was  likely,  by  its  adoption,  once  more  to  restore  quiet  and 
concord  to  the  country;  when  suddenly  certain  distinguished  gentlemen, 
(led  on  by  the  honorable  Senator  from  Florida,  Mr.  YULEE,  who  has 
been  an  open  opponent  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  whenever  it  was 
presented  here  heretofore,  who  has  denounced  it  in  his  place  at  all  times,) 
I  say,  certain  distinguished  gentlemen,  following  the  lead  of  the  very  dis 
tinguished  gentleman  from  Florida,  who  sometimes  rises  in  our  midst  and 
delivers  solemn  lectures  upon  political  consistency,  resolved  to  unite  with 
him  as  they  have  done  most  heartily  and  most  fiercely,  in  urging  upon  Con- 


gress  and  the  country  the  Missouri  Compromise — no,  not  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  but  the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  as  an  ultimatum.  This 
is  all  history,  sir,  and  history,  too,  that  cannot  be  disputed.  So  much 
for  the  Missouri  Compromise,  its  former  opponents,  and  present  friends ! 
Now,  sir,  I  will  notice  as  concisely  as  practicable,  the  doctrinal  por 
tions  of  the  speeches  with  which  we  have  been  favored  by  the  honora 
ble  Senators  to  whom  I  am  specially  responding.  One  of  them — the  Sena 
tor  from  South  Carolina  (Mr.  BUTLER) — seems  to  regard  the  whole  South, 
or  at  least  a  majority  of  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union,  pledged  to  sus 
tain  the  principles  for  which  he  has  contended  in  our  hearing  on  this  occa 
sion.  The  other  of  them — the  honorable  Senator  from  Virginia,  (Mr. 
MASON) — particularizes  certain  States  by  name,  and  declares  that  they 
all  stand  committed  to  the  disorganizing  notions  which  he  has  so  for 
mally  paraded  before  us.  It  would  have  given  me  great  pleasure,  Mr. 
President,  to  have  found  it  in  my  power  to  harmonize  with  these  gentle 
men,  both  in  opinion  and  in  action,  at  this  momentous  crisis  in  our  na 
tional  affairs.  But  I  find  it  impossible  to  do  so.  And  I  beg  leave  to 
assure  these  gentlemen  that  they  have  grossly  mistaken  the  attitude  of 
the  State  of  Mississippi  in  the  contest  now  pending.  Sir,  the  State  of 
Mississippi  did  not  unite  with  South  Carolina  formerly  in  supporting  the 
doctrines  of  nullification.  We  had  but  a  small  body  of  avowed  nulli- 
fiers  in  our  whole  State ;  and  nearly  all  of  them  have  since,  either  tacitly 
or  by  open  declaration,  acknowledge  their  former  error  in  asserting  the 
right  of  a  single  State  to  invalidate  a  law  of  the  whole  Union.  At  this 
moment  the  State  of  Mississippi  occupies  the  precise  ground  which  was 
occupied  by  our  convention  last  autumn,  over  the  deliberations  of  which 
body  a  worthy  gentleman  presided  who  is  most  probably  at  the  present 
moment  in  hearing  of  all  that  I  am  now  saying.  Sir,  our  State  last 
autumn,  as  she  now  does,  protested  most  solemnly  against  the  enactment 
of  the  Wilmot  proviso,  and  other  kindred  measures,  the  adoption  of  which 
was  then  so  seriously  menaced.  She  recommended  a  resort  to  all  con 
stitutional  measures  of  redress,  and  proposed  the  scheme  of  a  Southern 
Convention.  The  proceedings  of  our  convention  did  not  look  to  the  de 
struction  of  the  Union,  but  the  preservation  of  it,  by  maintaining  the 
Constitution  inviolate  to  which  that  Union  owed  its  existence.  We  de 
manded  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  as  established  by  the  Constitu 
tion;  and  our  avowed  object  in  proposing  the  Nashville  Convention 
was  to  bring  about  the  adoption  of  such  measures  of  redress  and  con 
ciliation  as  might  vindicate  the  integrity  of  the  Constitution,  and  rescue 
the  Union  itself  from  impending  ruin.  Such  has  been  the  declaration 
which  I  have  constantly  made  here  in  regard  to  the  character  and  ob 
jects  of  our  Mississippi  Convention.  Nor  have  I  yet  been  contradicted 
on  this  subject  in  any  quarter.  1  assure  you,  sir,  that  Mississippi  did  not 
send  one  delegate  to  the  Nashville  Convention  who  was  a  disunionist 
per  se.  No  delegate  from  the  State  of  Mississippi  entertained  any  such 
views  as  those  which  have  been  recently  promulgated  by  Mr.  Rhett,  of" 
South  Carolina,  Judge  Tucker,  of  Virginia/and  their  illustrious  com 
peers,  some  of  whom  1  intend  to  notice  presently  in  a  very  special  man 
ner.  I  am  speaking,  as  all  will  perceive,  with  proper  coolness  and  cir 
cumspection ;  and  as  Chief  Justice  Sharkey  is  himself  in  our  midst,  it 
will  be  quite  easy  for  honorable  gentlemen  who  at  all  doubt  the  accu 
racy  of  my  statements  on  this  head,  to  subject  me  to  refutation  by  bring 
ing  him  forward  to  testify  against  me,  if,  indeed,  I  am  at  all  in  error  in 


supposing  him,  and  those  who,  with  him,  represented  the  State  of  Mis-* 
sissippi  in  the  Nashville  Convention,  as  utterly  opposed  to  the  dangerous 
and,  as  I  think,  treasonable  doctrines  which  have  been  recently  promul 
gated  by  certain  disunion  doctors  in  and  out  of  South  Carolina.     Yes, 
sir,  I  will  go  further,  and  say  to  honorable  gentlemen  that  if,  upon  con 
sulting  Judge  Sharkey  and  other  gentlemen,  now  also  present,  who  occu 
pied  seats  in  the  Nashville  Convention,  they  do  not  find  them  all  full  of 
indignation  and  disgust  at  the  course  pursued  since  the  adjournment  of 
the  convention  by  Mr.  Rhett  and  his  allies,  then  I  will  resign  my  seat 
here,  and  give  way  to  some  one  more  sagacious  than  myself,  and  more 
capable  of  ascertaining  the  opinions  of  those  with  whom  I  am  allowed 
to  con  verse  freely  and  unreservedly  upon  the  public  questions  of  the  day. 
Now,  sir,  what  is  the  precise  doctrine  which  honorable  gentlemen  un 
dertake  to  assert  here  to-day?     Why,  if  I  understand  them,  they  insist- 
that,  whenever  a  State  of  this  Union,  with  or  without  just  cause,  chooses 
to  resist  the  authority  of  the  General  Government,  and  secede  from  the 
Union,  her  right  so  to  proceed  must  be  at  once  recognised  by  the  Govern 
ment,  and  is,  indeed,  a  matter  beyond  reasonable  question.  Yes,  sir,  this  is 
the  position  taken  here  to-day,  and  which  honorable  gentlemen  conceive 
the  whole  South,  inclusive  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  pledged  to  main 
tain,  even  by  arms  if  necessary.     Now,  sir,  I  wish  to  be  understood  as 
never  having  been  one  of  those  who  supposed  that  a  State  would  in  no 
case  be  justifiable  in  seceding  from  the  Union.     On  the  contrary,  I  have 
repeatedly  declared  here  in  my  place,  that  I  did  not  all  doubt  the  right 
of  a  State  thus  to  act,  ufcder  certain  circumstances.     Never  have  I  held 
that  a  State  of  the  Union,  or  any  portion  of  our  free  people,  are  bound 
to  submit  to  intolerable  oppression.     The  Union  is,  indeed,  in  my  esti 
mation,  of  inappreciable  value  ;  but  the  Union  itself  would  be  worthless 
without  that  liberty  and  happiness  which  it  was  intended  to  secure. 
Describe  to  me  a  case  of  intolerable  oppression,  and  I  will  at  once  ac 
knowledge  that,  in  such  a  case,  secession  would  be  justifiable.     I  will 
go  further,  and  say,  as  I  have  often  declared  here  and  elsewhere,  that 
any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  Government  to  interfere  seriously 
with  the  rights  of  the  South,  in  connexion  with' the  subject  of  domestic 
slavery,  if  consummated,  would  justify  a  resort  to  secession ;  for  this 
would  be,  in  my  judgment,  the  most  grievous  and  intolerable  wrong 
which  could  be  perpetrated  upon  the  Southern  States.     Thus  far  am  I 
a  secessionist.     I  will  not  take  it  upon  myself  to  say  that  secession  in 
such  a  case  as  the  one  just  described  would  be  a  constitutional  remedy. 
Great  statesmen  have  differed  on  this  point,  and  will  perhaps  never 
agree.     Whether  it  be,   though,   a   constitutional  or   a   revolutionary 
remedy,  it  is,  perhaps,  of  no  practical  importance  to  determine.     The 
remedy  certainty  exists  in  some  form,  and  may  be  justifiably  resorted  to 
in  case  of  real  and  ruinous  oppression,  when  all  other  remedies  fail.     I 
confess  that  I  have  been  always  inclined  to  agree  with  General  Jackson 
in  supposing  it  to  be  a  revolutionory  remedy.     Certain  it  is  that  its  suc 
cessful  enforcement  would  have  the  effect  of  overturning  the  Govern 
ment,  and  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  regarding  that  as  a  revolutionary 
in  its  character  which  must  be  necessarily  productive  of  this  result. 
Perhaps  Philip  P.  Barbour  was  correct  in  describing  secession  as  "  the 
political  arsenic  of  our  system,  never  to  be  resorted  to  except  when  all 
other  remedies  prove  inefficient."     Surely,  sir,  it  cannot  be  successfully 
contended  that  there  is  a  right,  strictly  constitutional  in  its  character,  pos- 


5 

sessed  by  each  one  of  the  sovereign  States  of  this  Union  to  secede  from 
the  Union  at  pleasure.  Such  a  proposition  really  seems  almost  too  ab 
surd  to  deserve  serious  consideration.  Let  us  see  how  it  would  work  in 
practice.  Suppose  the  State  of  Delaware  to-morrow  to  secede  from  the 
Union  without  the  allegation  of  any  special  reason,  and  without  any  ex 
isting  ground  of  complaint  in  regara  to  the  oppressive  action  of  the 
Government.  The  President  of  the  United  States  is  bound  to  maintain 
the  Constitution  inviolate,  and  to  see  that  the  laws  of  the  Republic  are 
duly  enforced.  One  of  the  objects  of  the  Constitution,  as  declared  in  its 
own  preamble,  was  "  to  form  a  more  perfect  Union"  than  existed  under 
the  confederation.  The  Union  provided  for  in  the  articles  of  contedera- 
tion  was  a  "  perpetual  Union."  Will  any  one  doubt  that  in  the  case  of 
attempted  secession  just  specified,  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  President 
to  preseve  the  Union,  to  prevent  secession,  by  the  employment  of  all,  the 
constitutional  power  intrusted  to  him,  and,  by  doing  so  "to  the  best  of 
his  ability,  to  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution"  itself? 
But  if  this  would  be  the  President's  duty  in  such  a  case,  will  any  man 
insist,  notwithstanding,  that  the  right  of  secession,  as  a  constitutional 
right,  could  be  justifiably  exercised  on  the  part  of  the  seceding  State? 
Could  Delaware  have  a  right  to  secede,  and  the  President  also  be  autho 
rized  at  the  same  time  to  prevent  her  from  seceding  ?  See  how  these 
repugnant  constitutional  principles  would  conflict  with  each  other. 
Delaware,  in  the  exercise  of  a  constitutional  ri^Lt,  withdraws  from  the 
Union  ;  the  President,  co-operating  with  Congress,  brings  her  back  into 
the  Union.  In  a  month  or  two  she  takes  another  disunion  fit,  and  dashes 
out  of  the  Union  a  second  time  :  again  she  is  brought  back.  And  so  this 
action  and  counteraction  may  go  on  forever,  according  to  honorable  gen 
tlemen,  without  the  Constitution  itself  being  in  the  least  degree  violated 
on  either  side.  But  suppose  the  State  of  Louisiana  to  secede  from  the 
Union  without  just  cause ;  each  of  the  sovereign  States  of  the  Confede 
racy  has  a  right,  under  the  Constitution,  as  is  now  urged  upon  us,  to 
separate  from  her  sister  States  at  her  own  pleasure.  Suppose  Louisi 
ana,  after  such  secession,  to  establish  a  tariff  of  duties  grossly  injurious 
to  the  States  and  Territories  situated  upon  the  banks  of  the  Mississppi 
and  its  tributaries ;  or  suppose  her,  on  seceding,  to  open  the  port  of  New 
Orleans  to  the  commerce  of  all  nations,  free  of  duty,  thus  destroying  at 
once  the  whole  revenue  system  of  the  Republic:  would  it  be  the  consti 
tutional  duty  of  all  the  States  thus  subjected  to  injury,  and  of  the  Union 
itself,  petiently  to  submit  to  all  the  consequences  growing  out  of  such 
an  act  of  secession  ?  If  not,  they  would  have  a  right,  and  would  doubt 
less  exercise  it,  of  employing  preventive  means  adequate  to  avert  such 
a  ruinous  state  of  things.  And,  then,  would  arise  the  same  conflict  of 
repugnant  constitutional  principles  already  described  as  arising  in  the 
case  of  Delaware.  I  will  not  detain  the  Senate  wkh  a  tedious  argu 
ment  on  this  point,  but  will  bring  to  the  notice  of  honorable  gentlemen 
the  teachings  of  two  illustrious  Democratic  statesmen,  whose  opinions 
have  always  commanded  the  most  profound  respect  of  their  countrymen. 
I  refer  to  Thom,is  Jefferson  and  Andrew  Jackson. 

Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the  year  1825,  in  a  letter  to  William  B.  Giles,  thus 
expressed  himself: 

"  Take  together  the  decisions  of  the  federal  court,  the  doctrine  of  the  President,  and  the  mis 
constructions  of  the  constitutional  compact  acted  on  by  the  legislature  of  the  federal  branch,  and 
it  is  but  too  evident  that  the  three  ruling  branches  of  that  department  are  in  combination  to  strip 
their  colleagues,  the  State  authorities,  of  the  powers  reserved  by  them,  and  to  exercise  themselves 
All  functions,  foreign  and  domestic  M 


He  continues : 

"And  what  is  our  resource  for  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  ?  Reason  and  argument  t 
You  might  as  well  reason  and  argue  with  the  marble  columns  encircling  them.  The  represen 
tatives  chosen  by  ourselves?  They  are  joined  in  the  combination — some  from  incorrect  views  of 
government,  some  from  corrupt  ones,  sufficient,  voting  together,  to  outnumber  the  sound  parts, 
and,  with  majorities  only  of  one,  two,  or  three,  bold  enough  to  go  forward  in  defiance.  Are  we, 
then,  to  stand  to  our  arms  with  the  hot-headed  Georgian?  No,  that  must  be  the  last  resource, 
not  to  be  thought  of  until  much  longer  and  greater  sufferings.  If  every  infraction  of  a  compact 
of  so  many  parties  is  to  be  resisted  at  once  as  a  dissolution  of  it,  none  can  be  formed  which  would 
last  one  year.  We  must  have  patience  and  longer  endurance,  then,  with  our  brethren  white 
under  delusion;  give  them  time  for  reflection  and  experience  of  consequences;  keep  ourselves  in 
a  situation  to  profit  by  the  chapter  of  accidents;  and  separate  from  our  companions  only  when  the 
sole  alternatives  left  are  the  dissolution  of  our  Union  with  them,  or  submission  to  a  government 
without  limitation  of  powers.  Between  these  two  evils,  when  we  must  make  a  choice,  there  can 
be  no  hesitation.  But,  in  the  meanwhile,  the  States  should  be  watchful  to  note  every  material 
usurpation  on  their  rights;  to  denounce  them  as  they  occur  in  the  most  peremptory  terms;  to  pro 
test  against  them  as  wrongs  to  which  our  present  submission  shall  be  considered,  not  as  acknowl 
edgments  or  precedents  of  right,  but  as  a  temporary  yielding  to  the  lesser  evil,  until  their  accu 
mulation  shall  overweigh  that  of  separation." 

When  this  doctrine  of  secession,  now  so  strenuously  urged  here,  was 
first  broached  in  South  Carolina,  nearly  twenty  years  ago,  Gen.  Jackson 
declared  his  opinion  of  it  in  his  famous  proclamation,  a  few  extracts 
from  which  I  propose  to  read  ;  premising  that  whilst,  as  a  political  move 
ment,  I  have  ever  approved  the  issuance  of  the  proclamation,  and  whilst 
I  have  always  given  ^ny  sanction  to  most  of  the  doctrines  contained 
threin,  there  are  yet  mher  portions  of  that  document  to  which  I  have 
never  given  my  full  assent,  and  which  were  objected  to  very  strongly, 
as  I  recollect,  by  the  venerable  editor  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer  of  that 
period,  whom  I  am  glad  to  see  personally  present.  What  I  am  about  to 
read  I  desire  to  be  understood  as  endorsing  most  fully: 

"t  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  then,  forms  a  government,  not  a  league;  and  whether 
it  be  formed  by  compact  between  the  States,  or  in  any  other  manner,  its  character  is  the  same. 
It  is  a  government  in  which  all  the  people  are  represented,  which  operates  directly  on  the  people 
individually — not  upon  the  States;  they  retained  all  the  power  they  did  not  grant.  But  each 
State,  having  expressly  parted  with  so  many  powers  as  to  constitute,  jointly  with  the  other  States, 
a  sinale  nation,  cannot  from  that  period  possess  any  right  to  secede,  because  such  secession  does 
not  break  a  league,  but  destroys  the  unity  of  a  nation;  and  any  injury  to  that  unity  is  not  only  a 
breach  which  would  result  from  the  contravention  of  a  compact,  but  it  is  an  offence  against  the 
whole  Union.  To  say  that  any  State  may  at  pleasure  secede  from  the  Union  is  to  say  that  the 
United  States  are  not  a  nation;  because  it  would  be  a  solecism  to  contend  that  any  part  of  a  nation 
might  dissolve  its  connexion  with  the  other  parts,  to  their  injury  or  ruin,  without  committing  any 
offence.  Secession,  like  any  other  revolutionary  act,  may  be  morally  justified  by  the  extremity 
of  oppression;  but  to  call  it  a  constitutional  right  is  confounding  the  meaning  of  terms,  and  can 
only  be  done  through  gross  error,  or  to  deceive  those  who  are  willing  to  assert  a  right,  but  would 
pause  before  they  made  a  revolution,  or  incur  the  penalties  consequent  on  a  failure. 

**  Because  the  Union  was  formed  by  compact,  it  is  said  the  parties  to  that  compact  may,  when 
they  feel  themselves  aggrieved,  depart  from  it;  but  it  is  precisely  because  it  is  a  compact  that  they 
cannot.  A  compact  is  an  agreement  or  binding  obligation.  It  may,  by  its  terms,  have  a  sanc 
tion  or  penalty  for  its  breach,  or  it  may  not.  If  it  contains  no  sanction,  it  may  be  broken  with 
no  other  consequence  than  moral  guilt;  if  it  have  a  sanction,  then  the  breach  incurs  the  desig 
nated  or  implied  penalty.  A  league  between  independent  nations,  generally,  has  no  sanction 
other  than  a  moral  one;  or,  if  it  should  contain  a  penalty,  as  there  is  no  common  superior,  it 
cannot  be  enforced.  A  government,  on  the  contrary,  always  has  a  sanction,  expressed  or  im 
plied;  and,  in  our  case,  it  is  both  necessarily  implied  and  expressly  given.  An  attempt  by  force 
of  arms  to  destroy  a  government  is  an  offence,  by  whatever  means  the  constitutional  compact  may 
have  been  formed;  and  such  government  has  the  right,  by  the  law  of  self-defence,  to  pass  acts  for 
punishing  the  offender,  unless  that  right  is  modified,  restrained,  or  resumed  by  the  constitutional 
act.  In  our  system,  although  it  is  modified  in  the  case  of  treason,  yet  authority  is  expressly  given 
to  pass  all  laws  necessary  to  carry  its  powers  into  effect,  and  under  this  grant  provision  has  been 
made  for  punishing  acts  which  obstruct  the  due  administration  of  the  laws. 

"  It  would  seem  superfluous  to  add  anything  to  show  the  nature  of  that  union  which  connects 
us;  but  as  erroneous  opinions  on  this  subject  are  the  foundation  of  doctrines  the  most  destructive 


. 

to  our  peace,  I  must  give  some  further  development  to  my  views  on  this  subject.  No  one,  fellow- 
citizens,  has  a  higher  reverence  for  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States  than  the  magistrate  who  how 
addresses  you.  No  one  would  make  greater  personal  sacrifices,  or  official  exertions  to  defend 
them  from  violation;  but  equal  care  must  be  taken  to  prevent,  on  their  part  an  improper  interfer 
ence  with,  or  resumption  of,  the  rights  they  have  vested  in  the  nation.  The  line  has  not  been  so 
distinctly  drawn  as  to  avoid  doubts  in  some  cases  of  the  exercise  of  power.  Men  of  the  best  in 
tentions  and  soundest  views  may  differ  in  their  construction  of  some  parts  of  the  Constitution; 
but  there  are  others  on  which  dispassionate  reflection  can  leave  no  doubt.  Of  this  nature  appears 
to  be  the  assumed  right  of  secession.  It  rests,  as  we  have  seen,  on  the  alleged  undivided  sove 
reignty  of  the  States,  and  on  their  having  formed  in  this  sovereign  capacity  a  compact  which  is  called 
the  Constitution,  from  which,  because  they  made  it,  they  have  the  right  to  secede.  Both  of  these 
positions  are  erroneous,  and  some  of  the  arguments  to  prove  them  so  have  been  anticipated." 

General  Jackson,  it  will  be  recollected,  was  a  native  of  South  Caro 
lina — a  fact  which  I  commend  to  the  consideration  of  the  honorable 
Senator  from  South  Carolina,  (Mr.  BUTLER,)  who  has,  with  so  much  ap 
parent  exultation,  cited  the  conduct  of  Bernadotte  in  refusing  to  enter 
the  confines  of  France  in  hostile  array,  on  a  memorable  occasion,  on 
account  of  his  being  a  Frenchman  by  birth.  It  would  seem  that  General 
Jackson,  though  born  in  the  Waxaw  settlement  in  South  Carolina,  did 
not  at  all  doubt  what  his  duty  would  be  as  President  of  the  United 
States,  in  the  event  of  an  armed  resistance  to  the  laws  occurring  in  that 
State.  Doubtless  his  feelings  were  deeply  pained  at  being  thrown  into 
conflict  with  his  native  State,  and  he  would  gladly  have  avoided  the 
emplo}'ment  even  of  ungracious  language  towards  her,  could  he  have 
done  so  without  incurring  his  own  self-condenmation.  Listen  to  his 
pathetic  and  solemn  words : 

"  Fellow-citizens  of  my  native  State,  let  me  not  only  admonish  you,  as  the  first  magistrate  of  our 
common  country,  not  to  incur  the  penalty  of  its  laws,  but  use  the  influence  that  a  father  would 
over  his  children  whom  he  saw  rushing  to  certain  ruin.  In  that  paternal  language,  with  that 
paternal  feeling,  let  me  tell  you,  my  countrymen,  that  you  are  deluded  by  men  who  are  either 
deceived  themselves,  or  wish  to  deceive  you.  Mark  under  what  pretences  you  have  been  led 
to  the  brink  of  insurrection  and  treason  on  which  you  stand!" 

Again,  he  says : 

"  Eloquent  appeals  to  your  passions,  to  your  State  pride,  to  your  native  courage,  to  your  sense 
of  real  injury,  were  used  to  prepare'  you  for  the  period  when  the  mask  which  concealed  the  hideous 
features  of  DISUNION  should  be  taken  off.  It  fell,  and  you  were  made  to  look  with  complacency 
on  objects  which,  not  long  since,  you  would  have  regarded  with  horror.  Look  back  at  the  arts 
which  have  brought  you  to  this  state — look  forward  to  the  consequences  to  which  it  must  inevi 
tably  lead?  Look  back  to  what  was  first  told  you  as  an  inducement  to  enter  into  this  dangerous 
course.  The  great  political  truth  was  repeated  to  you,  that  you  had  the  revolutionary  right  of 
resisting  all  laws  that  were  palpably  unconstitutional  and  intolerably  oppressive:  it  was  added  that 
the  right  to  nullify  a  law  rested  on  the  same  principle,  but  that  it  was  a  peaceable  remedy' 
This  character  which  was  given  to  it  made  you  receive,  with  too  much  confidence,  the  assertions 
that  were  made  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  law  and  its  oppressive  effects." 

I  will  now  read  the  concluding  paragraphs  of  the  proclamation,  and 
invoke  from  honorable  Senators  their  most  serious  attention  thereto : 

"  The  laws  of  the  United  States  must  be  executed.  I  have  no  discretionary  power  on  the  sub 
ject;  my  duty  is  emphatically  pronounced  in  the  Constitution.  Those  who  told  you  that  you 
might  peaceably  prevent  their  execution  deceived  you;  they  could  not  have  been  deceived  them 
selves.  They  know  that  a  forcible  opposition  could  alone  prevent  the  execution  of  the  laws,  and 
they  know  that  such  opposition  must  be  repelled.  Their  object  is  disunion;  but  be  not  deceived 
by  names:  disunion,  by  armed  force,  is  TREASON.  Are  you  really  ready  to  incur  its  guilt?  If 
you  are,  on  the  heads  of  the  instigators  of  the  act  be  the  dreadful  consequences;  on  their  heads 
be  the  dishonor,  but  on  yours  may  fall  the  punishment;  on  your  unhappy  State  will  inevitably 
fall  all  the  evils  of  the  conflict  you  force  upon  the  Government  of  your  country.  It  cannot  accede 
to  the  mad  project  of  disunion,  of  which  you  would  be  the  first  victims;  its  first  magistrate  can 
not,  if  he  would,  avoid  the  performance  of  his  duty;  the  consequences  must  be  fearful  for  you, 
distressing  to  your  fellow-citizens  here,  and  to  the  friends  of  good  government  throughout  the 
world.  Its  enemies  have  beheld  our  prosperity  with  a  vexation  they  could  not  conceal;  it  was  a 
standing  refutation  of  their  slavish  doctrines,  and  they  will  point  to  our  discord  with  the  triumph 


I 

of  malignant  joy.  It  is  yet  in  your  power  to  disappoint  them.  There  is  yet  time  to  show  that 
the  descendants  of  the  Pinckneys,  the  Samplers,  the  Rutledges,  and  of  the  thousand  other  names 
which  adorn  the  pages  of  your  revolutionary  history,  will  not  abandon  that  Union,  to  support 
which  so  many  of  them  fought,  and  bled,  and  died.  I  adjure  you,  as  you  honor  their  memory — 
as  you  love  the  cause  of  freedom,  to  which  they  dedicated  their  lives — as  you  prize  the  peace  of 
your  country,  the  lives  of  its  best  citizens,  and  your  own  fair  fame,  to  retrace  your  steps.  Snatch 
from  the  archives  of  your  State  the  disorganizing  edict  of  its  convention;  bid  its  members  to  re 
assemble,  and  promulgate  the  decided  expressions  of  your  will  to  remain  in  the  path  which  alone 
can  conduct  you  to  safety,  prosperity,  and  honor;  tell  them  that,  compared  to  disunion,  all  other 
^vils  are  light,  because  that  brings  with  it  an  accumulation  of  all;  declare  that  you  will  never  take 
the  field  unless  the  star  spangled  banner  of  your  country  shall  float  over  you— that  you  will  not 
be  stigmatized  when  dead,  and  dishonored  and  scorned  while  you  live,  as  the  authors  of  the  first 
attack  on  the  Constitution  of  your  country.  Its  destroyers  you  cannot  be.  You  may  disturb  its 
peace — you  may  interrupt  the  course  of  its  prosperity — you  may  cloud  its  reputation  for  stability — 
but  its  tranquillity  will  be  restored,  its  prosperity  will  return,  and  the  stain  upon  its  national  charac 
ter  will  be  transferred,  and  remain  an  eternal  blot  on  the  memory  of  those  who  caused  the  disorder. 

' '  Fellow-citizens  of  the  United  States.  The  threat  of  unhallowed  disunion — the  names  of 
those,  once  respected,  by  whom  it  is  uttered — the  array  of  military  force  to  support  it — denote 
the  approach  of  a  crisis  in  our  affairs,  on  which  the  continuance  of  our  unexampled  prosperity, our 
political  existence,  and  perhaps  that  of  all  free  governments,  may  depend.  The  conjuncture  de 
manded  a  free,  a  full,  and  explicit  enunciation,  not  only  of  my  intentions,  but  of  my  principles  of 
action;  and  as  the  claim  was  asserted  of  a  right  by  a  State  to  annul  the  laws  of  the  Union,  and 
even  to  secede  from  it  at  pleasure,  a  frank  exposition  of  my  opinions  in  relation  to  the  origin  and 
form  of  our  Government,  and  the  construction  I  give  to  the  instrument  by  which  it  was  created, 
seemed  to  be  proper.  Having  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  justness  of  the  legal  and  constitutional 
opinion  of  my  duties  which  has  been  expressed,  I  rely  with  equal  confidence  on  your  undivided 
support  in  my  determination  to  execute  the  laws ;  to  preserve  the  Union  by  all  constitutional 
means;  to  arrest,  if  possible,  by  moderate,  but  firm  measures,  the  necessity  of  a  reeourse  to  force; 
and  if  it  be  the  will  of  Heaven  that  the  recurrence  of  its  primeval  curse  on  man  for  the  shedding 
of  a  brother's  blood  should  fall  upon  our  land,  that  it  be  not  called  down  by  any  offensive  act  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States. 

"Fellow-citizens!  The  momentous  case  is  before  you.  On  your  undivided  support  of  your 
Government  depends  the  decision  of  the  great  question  it  involves — whether  your  sacred  Union 
will  be  preserved,  and  the  blessing  it  secures  to  us  as  one  people  shall  be  perpetuated.  No  one 
can  doubt  that  the  unanimity  with  which  that  decision  will  be  expressed  will  be  such  as  to  inspire 
new  confidence  in  republican  institutions,  and  that  the  prudence,  the  wisdom,  and  the  courage 
which  it  will  bring  to  their  defence  will  transmit  them  unimpaired  and  invigorated  to  our  children. 

"  May  the  Great  Ruler  of  nations  grant  that  the  signal  blessings  with  which  He  has  favored 
ours  may  not,  by  the  madness  of  party  or  personal  ambition,  be  disregarded  and  lost !  And  may 
His  wise  providence  bring  those  who  have  produced  this  crisis  to  see  the  folly  before  they  feel  the 
misery  of  civil  strife,  and  inspire  a  returning  veneration  for  ttfat  Union  which,  if  we  may  dare  to 
penetrate  His  designs,  He  has  chosen  as  the  only  means  of  attaining  the  high  destinies  to  which 
we  may  reasonably  aspire!" 

I  hope  that  I  shall  not  be  understood  as  advising  force  to  be  employed 
in  any  particular  case.  I  should  profoundly  regret  that  any  necessity 
for  its  employment  should  arise.  Indeed,  for  my  own  part,  if  the  State 
of  South  Carolina  is  determined  to  secede,  as  her  geographical  location 
is  such  as  to  allow  the  movement  to  take  place  with  comparatively  lit 
tle  injury  to  the  rest  of  the  States,  I  should  be  rather  in  favor  of  per 
mitting  her  to  make  the  experiment.  1  am  confident  that  when  she 
shall  have  tested  the  advantages  of  a  separate  nationality  for  a  year  or 
two,  she  will  ask  to  be  readmitted  again  into  the  Union,  and  will  never 
afterwards  resort  to  her  favorite  remedy  of  secession. 

And  now,  Mr.  President,  having  declared  my  own  views  touching  this 
contested  doctrine  of  secession,  and  having,  as  I  think,  strongly  fortified 
myself  by  authority,  I  shall  proceed  to  show  the  real  nature  of  the  move 
ments  commenced  by  certain  persons  in  South  Carolina,  from  the  crim 
inality  of  whose  conduct  I  cheerfully  exempt  the  State  herself,  as  one 
of  the  sovereign  members  of  the  Confederacy,  who  I  hope  will  never 
consent  to  be  deluded  by  the  mad  teachers  who  are  now  endeavoring  to 
seduce  her  citizens  into  the  perpetration  of  high  treason  ;  for  treason  it 


9 

will  certainly  be,  as  I  shall  show  most  conclusively,  whenever  they  at 
tempt  to  act  out  their  present  fiery  resolves.  Thank  God  !  the  " mask', 
as  General  Jackson  calls  it  in  his  proclamation,  which,  a  short  time  since, 
"  concealed  the  hideous  features  of  DISUNION,"  has  now  been  taken  off. 
Since  the  sittings  of  the  Nashville  Convention  terminated,  that  mask 
has  fallen  from  the  faces  of  Messrs.  Rhett  and  others  who  went  to 
Nashville  with  the  language  of  patriotism  upon  their  lips ;  but  who, 
I  fear,  concealed  treasonable  intents  in  their  bosoms ;  and  now  the  whole 
South  will  look  with  just  and  salutary  horror  upon  the  conduct  of  those 
who  have  aimed  to  involve  the  Republic  in  ruin. 

Mr.  President,  it  could  scarcely  be  expected  of  one  who  rises,  as  I 
have  now  done,  altogether  unexpectedly,  and  upon  the  spur  of  the  mo 
ment,  to  deliver  his  views  in  a  very  connected  manner,  or,  as  the  Senator 
from  Florida  (Mr.  YULEE)  would  say, "  in  strict  logical  sequence."  At  any 
rate,  in  what  I  have  further  to  say,  I  beg  leave  to  be  recognised  as  inten 
tionally  disregarding  all  the  nicer  rules  of  method  and  arrangement. 
Hoping  that  no  one  will  now  expect  from  me  an  exemplification  of  the 
lucidus  ordo,  I  proceed  to  enter  upon  a  miscellaneous  field  of  observa 
tion,  that  I  hope  will  not  prove  altogether  barren  and  unfruitful. 

Sir,  the  honorable  Senator  from  Virginia  (Mr.  MASON)  has  talked  a 
great  deal  about  Southern  sentiment,  &c.  Now,  I  do  not  by  any  means 
profess  to  be  better  acquainted  than  everybody  else  in  the  world  with 
the  present  condition  of  the  public  mind  in  the  South  ;  but  I  feel  au 
thorized  to  declare  most  confidently  that  in  my  own  State,  always  a 
loyal  and  patriotic  State,  at  least  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  the  people, 
without  regard  to  party,  are  in  favor  of  that  plan  of  adjustment  which 
has  been  so  unhappily  defeated  by  a  strange  and  unnatural  combination 
between  the  abolitionists  of  the  North  and  the  Southern  ultras.  This 
will  be  ascertained  more  perfectly  hereafter,  when  an  opportunity  shall 
be  accorded  to  me  of  meeting  my  honored  constituents  face  to  face,  and 
challenging  my  calumniators  to  regular  controversy.  The  small  num 
ber  of  shallow-minded,  factious,  and  aspiring  demagogues  who  have 
combined  against  this  measure  for  the  most  selfih  and  dishonest  pur 
poses  of  selfish  ambition,  I  intend  to  reduce  to  their  proper  grade  and 
condition  when  I  shall  once  more  be  allowed  to  leave  this  field  of  ardu 
ous  labor,  and  enjoy  an  opportunity  of  talking  to  my  honest  and  manly 
constituency  in  the  language  of  patriotic  and  unreserved  freedom. 
Meanwhile,  I  beg  leave  to  say  to  the  Senator  from  Virginia  that  I  have 
not  been  by  any  means  un  unmindful  observer  of  public  movements  in 
my  native  State,  of  which  he  is  a  worthy  representative  in  this  body ; 
and  accident,  or  some  other  cause,  has  brought  me  into  very  special  ac 
quaintanceship  with  the  state  of  popular  sentiment,  in  regard  to  the 
bill  which  he  yesterday  aided  in  defeating,  in  his  own  particular  vicin 
age.  I  believe  that  the  county  of  Shenandoah  was  part  of  the  honora 
ble  gentleman's  district  when  a  member  of  the  other  House.  [Here 
Mr.  MASON  nodded  assent.]  Now,  sir,  it  so  happens  that  I  was  invited 
the  other  day  to  attend  a  public  meeting  in  that  county,  for  the  purpose 
of  discussing  this  same  Adjustment  Bill  I  regretted  most  profoundly 
that  my  engagements  here  prevented  my  compliance  with  the  invita 
tion  received.  But  I  have  been  more  than  recompensed  for  any  cha 
grin  which  arose  from  this  source  by  the  fact  that  I  have  since  been 
placed  in  possession  of  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting  which  assembled 
on  that  occasion,  from  which  it  would  seem  to  be  inferrible  that  the  im- 


10 

mortal  Tenth  Legion  of  Virginia  is  at  least  to  be-  relied  upon  to  a 
man,  at  this  crisis,  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  The  neighboring 
counties  seem  to  harmonize  admirably  with  Shenandoah ;  and  I  feel 
peculiar  pride  in  announcing  to  the  Senate,  that  my  own  native  county 
of  Fauquier  is  almost  as  unanimous  on  this  subject  as  Shenandoah — 
some  evidence  of  which  is  supplied  by  the  fact  that  the  humble  indi 
vidual  now  addressing  the  Senate  has  been  recently  invited,  by  gentle 
men  of  both  the  great  national  parties,  to  a  public  dinner  in  that  coun 
ty,  simply  on  account  of  his  zealous  and  persevering  activity  in  support 
of  the  bill  of  adjustment.  But  to  return  to  the  county  of  Shenandoah. 
Let  me  read  from  the  newspaper  which  I  hold  in  my  hand  an  account 
of  the  meeting  referred  to  ;  for  what  I  am  about  to  read  will  enable  the 
Senator  from  Virginia  to  learn  at  least  the  condition  of  public  senti 
ment  in  his  own  vicinage.  To  commence : 

"  The  chairman  explained  the  object  of  the  meeting  at  considerable  length,  touching  upon  the 
various  subjects  that  had  any  bearing  on  the  question  which  had  brought  us  to  the  present  crisis, 
and  which  caused  the  people  to  assemble  here  to  day  to  give  an  expression  of  their  views  as  to 
the  best  measure  which  would  be  likely  to  settle  the  question  of  slavery,  about  which  the  North 
and  the  South  have  been  contending  for  some  years.  Upon  the  conclusion  of  his  remarks,  on 
motion  of  Major  J.  S.  Calvert,  a  committee  of  thirteen  was  appointed  [they  have  so  much  re 
spect  for  us  that  they  take  our  number  of  a  committee — 1 3]  to  report  a  preamble  and  resolutions, 
which  was  accordingly  done,  and  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  I  will  forward  to  you  in  a  few  days. 

"  A  number  of  letters  were  read  to  the  meeting  from  distingutehed  gentlemen,  which  I  pre 
sume  will  hereafter  be  published.  Resolutions  were  passed  in  favor  of  the  Compromise  Bill, 
or  any  other  practicable  measure,  having  for  its  object  the  adjustment  of  this  vexed  question, 
which  now  threatens  the  stability  of  the  Union ;  also  denouncing  the  recent  proceedings  in 
South  Carolina,  having  for  their  object  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  ;  and  also  denouncing  all 
ultraism  and  fanaticism,  North  and  South.  The  spirit  of  compromise,  conciliation,  and  mutual 
concession  was  the  ruling  spirit  which  animated  the  minds  of  men  throughout  the  whole  meet. 
ing.  The  preamble  and  resolutions  were  all  adopted  by  a  unanimous  vote.  All  was  harmony 
and  union.  It  was  truly,  and  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  a  'Union  mass  meeting.'  Huzzah 
for  the  Tenth  Legion."  ' 

I  have  received  those  resolutions ;  and  I  undertake  to  say  that  they 
are  just  as  orthodox  resolutions  as  ever  were  adopted  by  a  public 
meeting.  I  will  read  them  to  the  Senate.  Here  they  are : 

"  Whereas  there  are  subjects  of  the  most  grave  and  serious  character  at  present  unsettling  opin 
ion  and  dividing  the  public  councils.  And  whereas  it  is  not  only  the  privilege  but  the  imperious 
duty  of  every  good  citizen  to  watch  with  anxious  concern,  the  slightest  movement  which  tends  to 
impair,  to  change,  or  to  subvert  principles  which  he  deems  immutable,  and  institutions  which  he 
has  learned  to  reverence.  While  we  believe  that  the  blind  enthsiasm  arrayed  against  the  interests 
and  the  institutions  of  the  South  has  neither  been  dictated  by  humanity  nor  kindled  at  the  altar 
of  patriotism — while  we  greatly  applaud  the  invincible  spirit  which  still  guards  with  the  sword  of 
reason  and  eloquence  that  frontier  of  reserved  rights  defined  with  so  much  perspicuity  in  our 
federal  compact — on  the  other  hand  we  are  deeply  penetrated  with  a  rational  conviction  that  the 
spirit  of  moderation,  of  mutual  concession  and  compromise,  is  the  true  and  eternal  philosophy  of 
social  prosperity  and  happiness.  While  we  would  denounce  every  wild  and  premature  innova 
tion,  every  encroachment  on  the  established  usages  of  society,  so  pregnant  with  pernicious  conse 
quences,  yet,  in  an  age  of  unparalleled  progress,  when  all  the  elements  of  active  enterprise  are 
advancing  with  a  rapidity  unexampled  in  former  times,  we  are  prepared  to  admit  that  ardent 
minds  will  naturally  indulge  the  most  sanguine  anticipations  ;  and  with  their  Utopian  schemes  of 
universal  freedom  and  equality,  will  strive  to  subvert  the  salutary  systems  of  experience.  Until 
quite  recently  the  ereat  chaner  of  our  Confederation  has  ever  been  revered  and  appealed  to  with  pro 
found  respect  anclveneration.  It  has  been  hallowed  as  the  living  testimony  of  national  emanci 
pation — the  sacred  shrine  and  perpetual  record  of  the  accumulated  wisdom  of  ages.  But  the  time 
has  come,  we  are  pained  to  discover,  when  men  of  eminent  abilities  and  extensive  influence  hurl 
at  each  other,  in  moments  of  exasperated  feeling,  the  most  fearful  menaces  and  denunciations. 
We  deprecate  these  reckless  menaces.  We  shudder  at  their  frequency  and  violence.  We  believe 
their  is  not  a  district  in  our  country  so  humble  or  so  remote  from  the  scenes  of  these  unfortunate 
collisions  as  not  to  have  been  thrilled  with  painful  anxiety  for  the  event.  And  your  committee, 
in  the  privacy  of  their  humble  homes,  have  not  been  exempt  from  these  alarming  apprehensions. 
We  therefore  respectfully  recommend  to  your  serious  consideration  the  following  resolutions : 


11 

"  1.  Resolved,  That  our  devotion  to  that  sacred  compact  which  confers  weight,  character,  and 
stability  upon  all  our  domestic  institutions  is  too  fervent  and  too  pure  to  be  prostituted  to  mere 
local  partialities,  abstract  questions,  or  territorial  difficulties. 

"  2.  Resolved,  That  we  have  witnessed  with  feelings  of  deep  regret  that  ultra  and  fanatical 
spirit  which  reigns  in  our  national  legislature  on  the  subject  of  slavery  ;  that  it  tends  to  subvert 
our  free  institutions  ;  that  it  is  hostile  to  the  principles  of  constitutional  liberty  ;  and  that  it  is  an  un 
holy  crusade  against  the  immutable  laws  of  political  equality,  and  worthy  of  the  execration  of 
every  enlightened  freeman. 

"  3.  Resolved,  That  a  spirit  ot  conciliation  and  compromise  should  pervade  our  national  coun 
cils  on  subjects  which  involve  the  peace  and  permanency  of  the  Union  ;  and  as  our  Union  was  the 
glorious  result  of  mutual  concession  on  the  part  of  our  revolutionary  fathers,  we  would  invoke 
Congress  to  settle,  in  a  spirit  equally  generous,  the  delicate  questions  which  are  now  threatening 
the  existence  of  our  national  liberties. 

"4.  Retolved,  That  we  are  willing  that  the  Compromise  bill  now  before  the  United  States 
Senate,  or  any  other  practicable  measure,  be  adopted,  to  give  repose  to  this  confederacy  of  States, 
on  principles  of  equality  and  justice. 

"  5.  Resolved,  That  we  maintain  the  broad  platform  of  NON-INTERVENTION,  the  only  indubita 
ble  ground  recognised  on  this  subject  by  the  Constitution,  and  that  the  establishment  by  Congress 
of  a  boundary  line  of  slavery  is  utterly  adverse  to  the  spirit  of  our  Confederacy. 

"  6.  Resolved,  Thai  those  eminent  men  who  have  nobly  asserted  and  maintained  in  the  coun 
cils  of  the  nation  our  inviolable  rights  and  privileges  with  fearless  and  eloquent  fidelity,  do  most 
richly  merit  the  approbation  and  gratitude  of  this  meeting. 

"  7.  Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  the  preamble  and  resolutions  and  other  proceedings  be  trans 
mitted  by  the  presiding  officers  to  each  of  our  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress. 

"  Hon.  Green  B.  Samuels  then  addressed  the  meeting  in  an  interesting  and  appropriate  speech, 
and  concluded  by  offerering  the  following  additional  resolutions: 

"  Resolved,  That  we  are  determined  to  adhere  to  the  Union  of  these  States  so  long  as  it  shall 
be  a  Union  of  equality  and  justice. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  denounce  the  proceedings  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  which  have  for 
their  purpose  tt»e  dissolution  of  the  Union,  as  treasonable,  and  as  such,  deserving  the  execration 
of  every  patriot  in  America. 

"  The  question  upon  the  passage  of  the  resolutions,  offered  by  the  Committee  of  Thirteen  was 
called  ;  when  they  were  again  read,  and  submitted  to  vote,  passed  unanimously. 

"  The  resolutions  of  Mr.  Samuels  were  then  submitted,  and  passed  without  a  dissenting  voice." 

Now,  sir,  I  have  only  one  remark  to  make  upon  this  meeting  in 
Shenandoah,  and  that  is  this :  I  feel  perfectly  assured  that  no  such 
meeting,  so  large,  and  yet  so  unanimous,  has  yet  been  held  in  Virginia 
in  opposition  to  our  plan  of  adjustment.  Indeed,  I  feel  that  there  is  good 
reason  for  believing  that  public  sentiment  in  the  Old  Dominion  in  regard 
to  this  measure  is  very  nearly  everywhere  correspondent  with  this  move 
ment  of  the  Tenth  Legion ;  and  I  would  politely  and  kindly  admonish 
the  Senator  from  Virginia  (until  he  shall  become  better  informed  of 
what  that  portion  of  the  people  who  inhabit  his  own  region  think  of  the 
measure  under  consideration)  that  he  will  not  venture  again  to  speak  so 
confidently  for  the  whole  South,  and  especially  for  my  own  State,  to 
whose  borders,  I  believe,  he  has  never  yet  travelled. 

But,  sir,  let  me  pass  under  review,  for  a  moment,  some  of  the  pro 
ceedings  of  public  meetings  recently  held  in  South  Carolina.  They  are, 
indeed,  peculiar  and  striking  in  several  respects.  I  beg,  whilst  I  speak 
of  the  action  of  these  meetings,  and  "of  the  movements  of  certain  indi 
viduals  in  South  Carolina,  that  I  may  not  again  be  charged — as  I  have 
been  once  heretofore  charged — with  assailing  a  sovereign  State.  Well, 
sir,  those  who  have  at  all  observed  the  proceedings  of  public  meetings 
in  South  Carolina  could  not  have  failed  to  notice  that,  amidst  the  bold 
and  high-spirited  people  who  therein  abide,  (a  portion  of  whom  seem  to 
imagine  that  there  is  no  intellect,  no  patriotism,  no  eloquence,  no  any 
thing  of  a  nature  to  impart  dignity  to  man,  as  a  moral  and  social  being, 
beyond  the  territorial  boundaries  of  the  sacred  Palmetto  State,)  there 
are  comparatively  but  few  persons  who  content  themselves  with  taking 
the  ground  that  a  sovereign  State  may  secede  from  the  Union  in  the  event 
of  the  Wilmot  proviso  being  adopted,  or  other  kindred  measures. 


12 

Nearly  the  whole  population  go  much  further — I  might  almost  say  in 
finitely  further.  They  contend  that  a  single  State  may,  whenever  she 
chooses  to  do  so,  put  an  end  to  the  union,  concord,  and  happiness  of  twenty 
millions  of  people,  whether  there  are  aggressions  to  complain  of  or  not. 
This  is  undeniably  a  new  phase  of  the  disunion  doctrine  which  the  ex 
citing  circumstances  of  the  present  times  have  served  to  develop,  and 
which  inflamed  sensibilities  and  weak  heads  can  alone  account  for. 
Mr.  Barn  well  Rhett,  well  known  here  at  one  time  as  a  self-sufficient, 
but  very  uninfluential  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  avows 
himself  a  disunionist  per  se,  and  seems  to  imagine  himself  capable  of 
wielding  all  the  physical  and  moral  power  of  South  Carolina  against 
the  Union.  This  may  be  so,  or  may  not  be  so  ;  but  whether  this  gen 
tleman  has  over-estimated  his  capability  of  public  mischief  or  not,  I 
rather  think  that  the  solid  fabric  of  the  Union  will  be  apt  to  stand  in 
spite  of  all  assaults  which  he  may  make  upon  it. 

This  is  to  me  quite  an  interesting  topic,  and  I  hope  will  prove  neither 
uninteresting  nor  unentertaining  to  the  Senate.  Let  me  read  to  you  a 
few  extracts  from  the  newspapers  of  that  State,  which  I  fear  express 
the  public  sentiment  reigning  there  at  this  unhappy  period.  First,  I  will 
read  an  article  from  the  Charleston  Mercury,  the  leading  organ  of  a  cer 
tain  faction  in  South  Carolina,  of  which  paper  I  feel  authorized  to  say, 
that  in  my  judgment  a  more  flagitious,  unprincipled,  and  treasonable  paper 
has  never  been  printed  anywhere  in  Chistendom.  The  article  which  I 
am  about  to  read  is  a  communication,  but  is  apparently  sanctioned  by 
the  editor.  Here  it  is  : 

"THE  REMEDY. — Ought,  Messrs.  Editors,  the  South  to  accept  the  extension  of  the  Miseour1 
Compromise  line  to  the  Pacific  as  a  settlement  of  the  slavery  question?  I  think  not.  The  com 
promise  adopted  on  the  admission  of  Missouri  has  failed  to  secure  us  against  the  encroachments  of 
the  Northern  States.  It  has  already  been  tried,  and  has  proved  ineffectual.  Why  try  it  again? 
Why  should  we  again  suffer  ourselves  to  be  lulled  into  a  fatal  slumber,  to  awaken  after  a  time,  and 
find  ourselves  weaker  and  our  enemies  stronger?  It  is  my  opinion  that  the  North  will  consent  to 
no  compromise  which  the  South  ought  to  accept.  Let  us  open  our  eyes  to  the  truth.  If  the 
institution  of  slavery  is  to  be  maintained  and  strengthened,  instead  of  beintr  gradually  weakened 
and  finally  abolished,  the  union  between  the  slaveholding  and  non-slaveholding  States  must  be 
dissolved/  Let  us,  then,  assume  the  attitude  and  speak  the  language  of  freemen  conscious  of 
their  strength.  Let  us  require  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution. " 

And  yet  I  was  denounced  some  time  ago  because  I  said  some  South 
erners  demanded  certain  amendments  to  the  Constitution,  and  that,  if 
they  could  not  obtain  them,  they  would  be  in  favor  of  disunion.  But 
sequent  events  have  proved  that  what  I  said  was  true. 

The  article  then  goes  on  to  say : 

"If  that  cannot  be  obtained,  let  the  Southern  States  give  notice  to  the  Northern,  that  they 
"  resume  the  powers  granted  under  the  Constitution,  since  they  have  been  perverted  to  their  in 
jury  and  oppression,"  and  proceed  at  once  to  elect  delegates  to  frame  a  constitution  for  the 
"Southern  United  States  of  North  America." 

Mr.  BUTLER.     From  what  paper  did  the  gentleman  read  ? 
Mr.  FOOTE.     From  the  Charleston  Mercury. 
Mr.  BUTLER.     Is  that  "  South  Carolina  ?" 
Mr.  FOOTE.     It  is  in  South  Carolina. 
Mr.  BUTLER.     Is  that  "  South  Carolina  ?" 
Mr.  FOOTE.     Not  at  all. 

Mr.  BUTLER.     What  is  the  signature  to  that  article  ? 
Mr.  FOOTE.     "Anti-Compromise" 

Mr.  BUTLER.  Ah  !  I  thought  the  Senator  was  speaking  of  the  anony 
mous  writer  "  South  Carolina." 


13 

Mr.  FOOTE.  The  honorable  gentleman  is  mistaken.  I  did  not  say  any 
such  thing.  I  did  not  say  that  the  Charleston  Mercury  was  South  Carolina* 
I  said  it  was  the  leading  organ  of  a  treasonable  faction  in  South  Carolina. 
And  I  now  say  that  the  columns  of  that  paper  furnish  evidence  in  proof 
of  what  I  have  now  stated.  Does  the  gentleman  repudiate  the  paper  ? 

Mr.  BUTLER.     Not  at  all. 

Mr.  FOOTE.  If  the  gentleman  did,  the  paper  would  repudiate  him  in 
turn,  and  he  might  lose  as  much  as  he  would  gain  by  the  proceeding. 
[  Laughter.]  Then,  the  paper,  not  standing  repudiated,  stands  tacitly  sanc 
tioned  now.  Where  is  the  gentleman  at  this  moment  ?  Has  he  gained 
any  advantage  worth  boasting  of  by  his  unseasonable  interrogations? 

I  now  propose  to  read  one  or  two  toasts  drunk  at  public  meetings  in 
South  Carolina,  which  may  be  looked  upon  as  more  or  less  indicative  of 
public  sentiment  there.  These  toasts  need  defence  very  much,  in  my 
judgment ;  and  I  must  be  allowed  to  say,  that  when  my  absent  friends 
are  assailed  in  my  presence  as  I  intend  to  assail  the  drinkers  of  these 
toasts,  I  would  defend  them,  or  acknowledge  them  frankly  to  have  been 
guilty  of  conduct  indefensible,  just  as  I  would  defend  the  honorable 
Senator  from  South  Carolina,  as  he  well  knows,  if  he  should  happen  to 
be  unjustly  assailed  in  my  hearing. 

Mr.  BUTLER.  I  wish  to  say  now,  at  the  beginning,  that  I  do  not  in 
tend  to  be  the  defender,  advocate,  and  eulogist  of  everybody  in  South 
Carolina.  I  shall  stand  up  for  South  Carolina.  So  far  as  her  sentiments 
are  expressed,  I  am,  in  some  measure,  responsible  for  them.  If  I  were  to 
take  newspaper  testimony,  I  might  very  easily  read  freely  from  some  in 
Mississippi ;  and  discount,  in  law,  is  always  considered  a  pretty  good  plea, 

Mr.  FOOTE.  Very  well,  sir.  There  is  no  paper  in  the  State  of  Mis 
sissippi  that  has  ever  published  such  sentiments.  An  editor  could  not 
live  in  the  State  that  would  publish  such  sentiments.  I  hope  never  to 
see  a  man  who  would  offer  such  sentiments  to  a  public  meeting  on  the 
Fourth  of  July.  Here  is  one  of  the  toasts  I  was  about  to  read : 

"By  Sergeant  [remember  he  is  a  sergeant]  B.  F.  Boyce. — The  Union:  The  time  is  fully 
come.  Let  us  cut  asunder  the  accursed  knots  which  bind  us  to  northern  fanaticism  and  oppres 
sion,  and  spurn  their  fragments." 

"  Sidney,"  in  the  Macon  '(South  Carolina)  Telegraph,  hails  Mr.  Rhett's 
speech  with  delight,  and  exclaims,  "  Let  us  dissolve  the  Union  and  be 
done  with  it."  Who  dare  say  that  here  ?  The  same  writer  continues : 

"To  the  able  and  fearless  statesman  who  has  spoken  to  us  in  the  language  of  patriotic  truth, 
and  has  called  upon  his  fellow-citizens  of  his  State,  and  of  the  whole  South,  to  join  him  in  en 
forcing  the  only  remedy  for  all  our  crushing  wrongs  now  within  our  reach—  a  d'tsolution  of  the 
Union — I  say,  "Advance!  My  hand  is  feeble,  but  whatever  of  strength  it  has  is  his!" 

Sir,  let  me  next  allude  to  a  speech  of  a  gentleman  whose  eloquence 
is  very  much  commended.  The  very  particular  mention  he  made  of  me 
seems  to  render  it  necessary  that  I  should  say  something  of  the  speech 
of  Colonel  Maxcy  Gregg,  of  Columbia,  South  Carolina.  After  talking 
some  time  about  the  Nashville  Convention,  he  goes  on  to  say : 

"Perhaps,  however,  California  by  itself  might  be  admitted.  In  that  event,  we  ought  to 
secede  and  take  it  by  force*" 

Yes,  sir,  this  gentleman  proposes  that  if  California  should  be  admit 
ted,  South  Carolina  should  secede  and  take  it  by  force.  (Laughter.) 
He  then  says : 

"If  nothing  is  done  at  the  present  Congress,  we  ought  to  pursue  the  »ame  course." 

Yes,  if  nothing  at  all  is  done,  he  tells  them  they  ought  to  pursue  the  same 
course.  [Laughter.]  This  is  the  imposing  menace  of  one  of  the  "  chiv- 


14 

airy"  of  South  Carolina.  I  have  really  wished,  since  I  saw  this  outbreak 
of  heroism,  that  the  author  of  "  Don  Quixote"  could  be  revived  from  the 
tomb,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  us  another  delicious  romance  on  Knight 
Errantry,  or  rather  American  chivalry,  or,  if  the  gentleman  will  allow 
me,  "  South  Carolina  Chivalry"  I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  the 
speaker  from  whom  I  have  quoted  actually  belongs  to  the  "  chivalry" 
himself;  but  he  seems  to  use  brave  words,  and  would  doubtless  make 
them  good  upon  any  equal  field.  Colonel  Gregg  goes  on  to  say  : 

"  Other  modes  of  resistance  might  be  proposed  and  adopted,-  but,  in  the  event  of  their  incf- 
,  other  and  more  decisive  steps  would  be  taken.'"1 


How  very  valorous  !     How  alarmingly  menacing  ! 

Mr.  BUTLER.  If  the  honorable  Senator  wishes  to  know  who  Colonel 
Gregg  is,  I  will  tell  him. 

Mr.  FOOTE.  I  think  I  know  him  very  well  from  this  speech.  [Laughter.] 

Mr.  BUTLER.  Colonel  Gregg  is  a  man  of  high  character.  He  would 
make  tiue  his  word  on  any  field.  He  was  an  officer  in  Mexico.  I  know 
of  no  man  of  more  remarkable  purity  of  character  than  Col.  Gregg. 
He  may  have  these  warm  sentiments  ;  but  there  is  no  man  that  has  a 
purer  character. 

Mr.  FOOTE.  Undoubtedly.  I  would  not  have  noticed  him  if  I  had  not 
supposed  that  he  was  a  distinguished  man.  (Laughter.)  I  am  adduc 
ing  testimony.  The  gentleman's  course  of  defence  is  more  than  judi 
cious  ;  it  is  exceedingly  generous.  Instead  of  endeavoring  to  call  in 
question  or  weaken  the  testimony  brought  forward  against  him,  he 
comes  forward  voluntarily  for  the  purpose  of  bolstering  up  testimony 
which  is  strong  enough  to  accomplish  its  purpose  without  his  aid.  I 
certainly  do  not  doubt  in  the  least  that  Col.  Gregg  is  an  eminent  man, 
an  accomplished  gentleman,  and  possessed  of  all  the  high  qualities  of 
head  and  heart  which  his  friends  may  attribute  to  him.  I  only  say  that 
his  views,  acted  out,  however  conscientiously  entertained,  would,  in  my 
judgment,  amount  to  treason.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  use  language  of 
personal  decrial  or  insult.  By  no  means.  My  respect  for  the  honorable 
Senator  from  South  Carolina,  if  no  other  motives,  would  preclude  me 
from  the  use  of  language  which  would  convey  a  personal  affront.  I  am 
speaking  of  public  acts,  though,  and  must  be  allowed  to  speak  with 
becoming  freedom.  And  I  say,  further,  that  such  high  testimony  as  is 
furnished  by  Col.  Gregg  appears  to  be  well  entitled  to  regard,  when  we 
are  inquiring  into  the  actual  condition  of  public  sentiment  in  the  State 
of  South  Carolina.  Can  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Virginia  defend 
the  language  which  this  gentleman  uses  ?  Would  any  man  in  the  Old 
Dominion  use  or  justify  such  treasonable  language?  But  Col.  Gregg 
then  went  on  to  say: 

"  We  had  no  need  to  fear  a  war  springing  out  of  the  formation  of  a  new  government;  that 
we  had  the  right  to  secede;  and  if  it  were  necessary  and  advisable,  it  did  not  become  MEN  to  be 
deterred  from  exercising  it." 

Colonel  Gregg  goes  on  to  say  : 

"Besides,  if  a  war  should  come,  it  must  terminate  favorably  to  the  South.  It  must  do  so, 
because  we  were  a  more  warlike  people  than  our  opponents,  and  would  have  that  decided  advan 
tage  attendant  upon  superior  spirit  and  valor.  (!)  Moreover  we  were  an  agricultural  people, 
while  our  opponents  were  engaged  in  manufactures  and  commerce;  and  the  former  always  have 
the  advantage  over  the  latter  in  a  protracted  struggle.  This  he  illustrated  by  a  reference  to  the 
Carthagenian  war.  [Very  classical.]  Besides  this,  we  have  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  river. 
y[They  have  got  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  river  in  South  Carolina!  (Laughter.)  I  did  not 
suppose  tint  two  hundred  men  in  South  Carolina  had  ever  seen  the  mouth  of  that  noble  river 
at  all."] 


15 

To  repeat,  he  says : 

"  Besides  this,  we  have  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  river,  (/)  and  by  this  means  can  block' 
ade  the  whole  Northwestern  States."  (.') 

Yes,  gentlemen  of  the  Northwest,  you  are  in  imminent  danger  of  an 
armed  blockade,  to  be  set  on  foot  by  a  South  Carolina  major  or  colonel, 
(I  do  not  know  exactly  which,)  and  you  ought  at  once  to  prepare  your 
selves  for  the  process  of  having  your  egress  to  the  ocean  hermetically 
obstructed  by  the  chivalry  of  South  Carolina !  (Great  laughter.) 

This  is  really,  Mr.  President,  about  the  most  laughable  speech  I  ever 
read  ;  and  its  power  of  awakening  ludicrous  emotion  is  greatly  enhanc 
ed  by  the  fact  that  the  orator  is  one  of  the  remaining  great  men  of 
South  Carolina.  Mr.  Gregg  talks  as  flippantly  about  seizing  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi  river,  and  blockading  the  Northwestern  States,  as 
some  urchin  would  of  spinning  his  top,  or  a  miss  in  her  teens  of  hem 
ming  her  sampler.  Why,  sir,  this  thing  of  seizing  upon  and  holding  the 
mouth  of  the  majestic  Mississippi  is  more  than  all  the  nations  of  Europe 
could  do  by  conjunctive  action;  and  I  would  like  to  advertise  our  good 
friends  of  South  Carolina,  that  those  who  dwell  upon  the  Mississippi 
and  its  tributaries  are  connected  by  indissoluble  bonds.  Those  whom 
God  has  joined  together  duunionists  cannot  rend  asunder.  Mr.  Gregg 
says  that  "  the  issue  might  come  sooner  than  the  adjournment  of  Con 
gress,  and  be  decided  with  the  controversy  between  New  Mexico  and 
Texas."  This  sagacious  suggestion  should  enforce  upon  us  the  import 
ance  of  an  immediate  adjustment  of  this  delicate  and  dangerous  boun 
dary  question.  Let  us  at  once  remove  the  only  remaining  pretext  of  the 
least  plausibility  for  the  perpetration  of  treason.  But  Mr.  Gregg  continues: 

"The  struggle  would  then  become  a  general  one,  and  we  would  be  justified  in  seizing  upon  any 
part  of  the  public  territory  ;  and  it  was  easy  to  say  where  the  people  of  South  Carolina  and  the 
Kershaw  district  would  be  at  that  day,  since  the  exhibition  given  during  the  war  with  Mexico." 

It  seems  that  a  Colonel  Chesnut  then  addressed  the  meeting  ;  and  a 
more  flatulent,  bombastic  speech  was  never  delivered,  even  in  the  Ker 
shaw  district,  South  Carolina.  The  gentleman  is  really  all  bounce,  and 
bravado,  and  bellowing  audacity.  He  raves  like  a  bedlamite,  squeaks 
like  a  luckless  pig  caught  between  two  sturdy  fence  rails,  and  pops  like  a 
very  chestnut  when  thrown  into  the  fire  without  a  previous  splitting  of  the 
hull.  On  reading  this  speech  of  Mr.  Chesnut,  it  really  distressed  me  to 
think  that  I  had  never  heard  of  him  before,  nor  had  even  ever  conjec 
tured  that  there  might  be  some  gentleman  somewhere  to  be  found  of  his 
precise  cognomen.  This  gentleman  seems  to  be  a  military  personage,  too, 
and  is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  real  chit-airy.  Listen,  if  you  please,  to  the 
account  given  of  him  and  his  speech  : 

"Colonel  Chesnut  then  followed  in  a  speech  of  great  interest  and  much  brilliancy,  defending 
the  convention  from  the  charge  of  being  a  treasonable  meeting;  which  charge  had  been  made  at 
the  North,  while  the  people  there  were  allowed  to  meet  at  any  place,  in  any  way,  and  for  any 
purpose,  wilheut  being  liable  to  any  such  charge.  He  then  spoke  of  the  causes  which  had  ren 
dered  a  convention  of  the  Southern  States  necessary  5  how  the  Northern  States  had  proved  recre 
ant  to  the  truest  reposed  in  them  by  the  South,  and  passed  law?,  energetic  and  effective,  to  defeat 
the  binding  obligations  of  a  solemn  treaty,  made  and  ratified  voluntarily  between  them;  how  they 
had  by  this  means  robbed  us  of  our  property- -were  destroying  our  peace  and  jeoparding  our  lives; 
how  the  United  States  Government  had  been  violently  and  fraudulently  wrested  from  its  legiti 
mate  purposes  and  objects,  and  made  a  mere  machine  in  their  own  hands  to  advance  and  subserve 
:  these  purposes;  how,  by  the  fiscal  action  of  the  Government,  large  amounts  of  money  were  un 
justly  abstracted  from  the  South,  and  profusely  lavished  on  the  North,  by  which  means  she  was 
!  robed  in  borrowed  magnificence;  that  the  North  had  been  encouraged  in  this  mode  of  procedure 
by  the  divisions  prevailing  at  the  South  and  among  the  Southern  Representatives  in  Congress; 


16 

that  the  South  had  looked— long  and  vainly  looked— to  the  solemn  guaranties  of  that  Constitution^ 
revered  and  held  sacred  by  her, for  protection  from  these  aggressions;  but  that  these,  though  strong 
were  insufficient  to  defend  her  against  the  fanatical  spirit  of  the  North,  encouraged  as  she  was  by 
the  desertions  of  Bentont  Foote  &  Co.,  &c.,  &c." 

I  surely  ought  to  be  very  grateful  (?)  to  Col.Chesnut  for  enabling  me 
to  ascertain  my  precise  standing  in  South  Carolina.  I,  who  aided  the 
Senator  from  Virginia  (Mr.  HUNTER)  in  getting  up  the  Southern  meeting 
eighteen  months  ago-^1,  who  have  assailed  in  my  own  feeble  way,  but 
zealously  and  fearlessly,  every  champion  of  Abolition  on  this  floor,  whe 
ther  potential  or  feeble,  to  the  best  of  my  strength-— I,  who  have  been 
formerly  commended  even  here  by  J.  C.  Calhoun  himself  for  good  inten 
tions  and  extreme  devotion  to  Southern  interests — I,  who  have  incurred 
more  obloquy  and  malignant  ridicule  than  any  Southern  man  ever  did, 
on  account  of  my  fierce  and  fervid  vindication  of  the  rights  of  the  South 
from  assailment,  with  whomsoever  originating — I,  who,  for  undertaking 
to  vindicate  the  character  of  South  Carolina's  greatest  statesman,  after 
he  had  passed  from  the  stage  of  earthly  action,  have  been  thrown  for 
four  months  past  into  a  sort  of  parliamentary  Coventry.  I  am  now  as 
sociated  in  South  Carolina  with  one  for  whom  South  Carolina  cherishes 
more  hatred  and  contempt  than  for  any  man  living  or  dead  !  Well,  this 
is  the  sort  of  reward  that  human  justice  commonly  bestows,  and  I  am 
content  with  it.  I  will  only  say  that  some  of  the  good  people  of  South 
Carolina  as  much  misunderstand  me  as  they  do  the  questions  now  before 
the  country  for  decision. 

Mr.  President,  gentlemen  now  speak  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  as 
an  ultimatum.  So  the  honorable  Senator  from  Virginia  says  to-day. 
Why,  I  made  it  my  business  to  consult  the  honorable  Senator  from  South 
Carolina  who  sits  nearest  to  me,  (Mr.  BARN  WELL,)  who  was  a  member 
of  the  Nashville  Convention,  when  he  first  came  here,  (I  regret  that  he 
is  not  now  in  his  place,)  as  to  whether  the  Nashville  Convention  looked 
upon  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  as  an  ultimatum.  He  said  promptly 
that  it  was  not  so  recognised  by  him.  I  consulted  with  the  President  of 
the  Convention,  (Chief  Justice  Sharkey,)  who  gave  me  a  similar  re 
sponse.  So  have  responded  all  the  delegates  to  the  Convention  who 
have  yet  reached  this  city,  with  whom  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of 
conversing.  And  yet  honorable  gentlemen  here,  and  champions  of  se 
dition  elsewhere,  insist  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  as  adopted 
at  Nashville,  is  an  ultimatum,  and  that  there  is  no  alternative  to  its 
adoption  by  us,  save  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  Well,  sir,  though  I  have 
always  voted  for  the  line  of  36  deg.  30  min.,  when  I  have  had  an  oppor 
tunity,  I  confess  that  I  never  yet  in  my  life  thought  for  a  single  instant 
of  making  it  an  ultimatum ;  nor  can  I  easily  perceive  how  any  person, 
being  possessed  of  the  ordinary  quantum  of  reasoning  power,  could  think 
of  such  a  thing  as  a  practical  proposition.  The  truth  is,  it  is  chiefly  in 
sisted  on  with  a  view  todwMmow,and  that  the  whole  country  will  shortly 
understand ;  and  when  the  disunion  plot,  which  I  have  known  to  be  on 
foot  for  several  months  past,  shall  be  once  plainly  laid  open  to  the  peo 
ple  of  the  South,  both  plot  and  plotters  will  be  consigned  to  undying  in 
famy,  or  I  have  read  the  pages  of  republican  history  in  vain,  and  the 
enligthened  freemen  of  America  will  prove  themselves  wholly  incapable 
of  that  self-government  upon  which  they  have  heretofore  so  much  prided 
themselves.  May  God,  in  his  mercy,  save  our  beloved  country  from  the 
ruin  and  degradation  in  which  ambitious  and  unprincipled  demagogues 
have  striven  to  involve  us !  , ,  fr 

•  i.  :  J  Jfa     <TtrcrU* 

^xr^~*^afi*-  r^^     si  «*™' 


